Season 2, Episode 13
CYNTHIA
And Miss Jones, just leaving are you?
MIRANDA
That's right, Miss Radcliffe is it?
CYNTHIA
Are you a little hard of hearing dear? Or is it your memory that's bad?
MIRANDA
There's no need to prolong this.
SOUND OF CAR DOOR SLAMMING
CYNTHIA
Well, before you go, as long as we had the chance to meet like this, I think it's a good idea that we get just a couple of things perfectly clear. Shall we? I knew something was up-- I always know. A woman has a nose for these things, you know. A smart woman does. (cont)
So do yourself a kindness, dear, and don't come back. We don't need you.
MIRANDA
No, I can see that you don't, Cynthia. You don't need anyone at all, except yourself.
CYNTHIA
What? Well, I'll just take that as a compliment.
SOUND OF CAR MOTOR STARTING
CYNTHIA
And oh, Miss Jones, you do awfully nice paintings. Why don't you just stick to what you know?
Our injured male heart-throb, suffering alone in his hospital bed, is still unaware that the two women he was dating at the same time have now met. Miranda, the series protagonist, has gone to Zack’s home to retrieve a painting of hers, having now discovered that her rival bought it as a gift for Zack. Unfortunately, who should arrive at the Calvin Estate before she can get away, but the rival herself, Cynthia. All this is ominous indeed, as the depression Zack feels after his injury is compounded by the mess he’s made in his romantic life.
It was lots of fun to play these parts. Both Lynn Chester, who plays the blond bombshell Cynthia, and I, as the actress playing Miranda, had plenty of experience on stage and on soap operas. While I was in Days of Our Lives, she was in One Life to Live. So we were quite familiar with these kind of jealous confrontation scenes.
But Lynn has many more dimensions as an actress, so I also cast her as the senior assistant to Joseph Calvin, Zack’s father—his most trusted employee, capable of handling any emergency, but slightly eccentric in her way of doing so. Lynn was brilliant as the office manager who sounded twitter-pated, yet kept everything running smoothly, and knew where all the bodies were buried, as it were.
Lynn is also a talented singer, and since I had several cast members with fantastic musical talent, I wrote a “Talent Night” episode . . . you can listen to later in the season.
In real life, Lynn and Colby, who played Zack, were married, which meant that when they came to work in the Milford-Haven studio, they could carpool, then have a good laugh on their way home. But both these consummate professionals arrived well-prepared, and brought so much nuance and vivid emotion to their scenes that their work made me a better writer. So the next time they recorded, their scenes would be a little better, which meant their performances could also come up a notch. Thanks to them, and the rest of my splendid cast, the show got better and better as we continued.
In another storyline, another married couple of actors played a criminal, and a clandestine operative, respectively, in what was one of the most ominous plotlines to the series. Cheryl Kilmer played the spy who, in this episode, finally digs up information on a now-defunct Operation Tyro, a series of unsavory experiments involving the influencing of children. Her husband Mark Kilmer played the former operative-turned-criminal who, though ordered to terminate the program, has secretly kept it going. And yes, in real life, his brother is Val Kilmer.
So which kind of storyline is your cup of tea? Spies and bad guys? Jealous women fighting over a man? Underwater adventure? Long lost love? In Milford-Haven, you can have your pick!
So now . . join us for Season 2 by downloading the episode
or subscribing to Season 2, tune in to your favorite device, and join us in . . . Milford-Haven!
By the way, if you missed Season 1, it is now available.